The Lake of the Mountain is a curiosity of no mean order. The following, taken from the Montreal Gazette, published in the summer of 1834, is worthy the place we give it:
“The Lake of the Mountain is one of the most remarkable objects in the District of Prince Edward. This singular body of water is about five miles distant from Hallowell, (Picton). It is situated on the top of a lofty eminence, about one hundred and sixty feet above the level of the Bay of Quinté. The manner in which it is bounded is rather singular. In one direction it is only separated from the waters of the Bay below by a ledge of limestone rock, about eighty feet high, and by a precipitous embankment, which extends half way around it. In every other direction it is skirted by a ridge which rises to the height of 40 feet above the level of its surface. This Lake is about five miles in circumference. Its waters are at present applied to propel only a grist mill and a fulling machine. An artificial canal has been cut, along which the water is conveyed to the edge of the embankment, from whence it is conducted by a wooden raceway to the mills, which are situated near the margin of the bay below. The original outlet of the lake is at a few paces distance from the raceway. At this place the surplus waters formerly escaped through an orifice in the precipice I formerly mentioned, and after dashing over the rocks below, ultimately found their passage into the Bay.
“When I first heard of this lake, the most incredible stories were related to me concerning it. The gentleman who first directed my attention to it, absolutely told me that it was supplied by a subterraneous passage from Lake Erie, that there was no inlet in the neighborhood, capable of affording it a supply, and lastly, that it was unfathomable, or that its bottom was lower than that of the adjoining part of the Bay of Quinté. Such information as this, communicated by a well-informed Barrister, did not fail to excite my curiosity, and I accordingly set out to examine it with feelings of considerable anxiety.
“What led to the absurd idea that this lake was supplied from Lake Erie, I am at a loss to understand. It contains no springs, and the banks of that part especially from which it is viewed by strangers, being all so low that no inlet is visible, it might, perhaps, have been thought impossible to account for its source by any other means. The absurdity of the notion is, however, so glaring, that I would not spend a single moment in exposing it, had it not taken strong hold of the imagination of a great proportion of intelligent people residing in this part of the country.
“If the Lake of the Mountain were supplied from Lake Erie, its waters should experience a corresponding rise and fall with those of Lake Erie. This, however, they do not, for last year the waters of Lake Erie were higher than usual, while those of the Lake of the Mountain were very low. Again, this year, the waters of Lake Erie were lower than usual, while those of the Lake of the Mountain are very high.
“Further, if the Lake of the Mountain were supplied from Lake Erie, it should be altogether uninfluenced by any state of the weather in its neighborhood. This, however, is not the case, for in wet weather it becomes high, and in dry weather it becomes low. When I first visited this lake, its waters were nearly upon a level with its banks, and when I saw it some months afterwards, they were seven or eight feet above them. This was after a continuance of dry weather.
“From all this it is evident that Lake Erie does not furnish the supply of the Lake of the Mountain, and that it must be looked for in some other quarter. Being determined to discover from whence this supply was derived, I proceeded along the east side of the lake for about a mile, upon the top of the eminence which separates it from the Bay of Quinté. I then entered the woods and began imperceptibly to ascend, until I found, by again coming in site of the lake, that I had reached an elevation of about forty feet above it. Continuing to proceed for two or three miles, I descended, in the same imperceptible manner, to the place from which I first set out. In the course of this journey, I crossed no less than five different water-courses, four of which were dry at the period of my first visit, but all of which I have since seen pouring out very considerable quantities of water. The fifth is a beautiful stream flowing into the lake over successive ledges of limestone rock, underneath the rich foliage of the trees by which it is overarched. This stream affords the chief supply to the lake, and judging from the appearance of its channel, it must be sometimes upwards of a foot deep. In the spring and fall, when the greatest quantities of water are discharged by it, I have distinctly heard the noise which it makes at a distance of two miles, and on the opposite side of the lake, as it dashes over the rocks. The whole of these rivulets proceed from two extensive swamps. That from which the largest arises is situated to the south west of the lake, and is about three or four miles in circumference.
“The depth of the lake next claimed my attention. Having procured a sufficient length of line, I pushed out upon its waters in a small scow. For a considerable distance we distinctly perceive the bottom, which consists of dissolved, or rather corroded lime, so loose and light that with little or no exertion one may push the whole length of his oar into it. Continuing to look downwards upon the beautiful white bottom as we sail along, we start instinctively upon finding that we all at once lose sight of it, and that we gaze into a deep, dark, frightful abyss, which is formed by the sudden appearance of a precipitous ridge, running right across the lake. Nothing can exceed the amazement—terror, I had almost called it—which some people express on finding themselves surrounded by lofty, dark woods, and floating upon the surface of water as black as ink, over an abyss which they have been told is quite unfathomable.
“After having sailed over the lake in every different direction, and taken an immense number of soundings, I found its greatest depth to be only ninety-one feet. The bay below I found to be eighty-two feet. Now as the lake is about one hundred and sixty feet above the level of the bay, it follows that the bottom of the lake is one hundred and fifty-one feet higher than that of the bay.
“Thus, then, it appears that the Lake of the Mountain does not derive its supply from Lake Erie, that its source is to be found in its immediate neighbourhood, that it is not unfathomable, and that its bottom is not lower than that of the Bay of Quinté.